NOVA Hourglass
by Razzamatronic
Summary: The Judger attack on humanity has begun, outnumbered and outgunned NOVA can only hope to stall them until a miracle occures, Kal Wardin and the AI Yelena are present at the Judger assault on New Ceres and manage a jump to a random system where they find and ancient battleground with hidden secrets that could save or destory humanity, either way the end has begun.


A/N: This is the completely reworked version of my original NOVA story I hope everyone enjoys it. This story is only possible because of all the people who reviewed Collision and Counter Attack which is what got me back into writing Fanfiction. This story takes place after NOVA 3 but with a slightly different ending where Yelena survives.

Chapter 1: Incursion

The colony of New Ceres had been a beautiful place before the Judger caretakers had assaulted the colony and nearly destroyed it completely, after the Xeno attacks ceased the colony rebuilt and weathered both the arrival of the Volterites, the Human-Volterite Alliance and the ensuing war that followed them. Even after surviving all that the colony could not escape the new war that was thrust upon it suddenly and without warning. After NOVA stole the Judger artifact and destroyed a temple the Judgers decided it was time to set their long prepared plans into motion, using the Caretakers and the Human-Volterite Alliance as their armies a Judger fleet began the first assault on humanity and decided to begin where the human Kal Wardin had begun his journey unknowingly into the middle of a long planned interstellar war.

The skies of Ceres were orange and black from fire, smoke and thunderclouds massing along the horizon, thousands of Judger soldiers battled with NOVA garrisons across New Ceres City. In space Judger, Alliance and NOVA warships of all sizes battled far above the ravaged planet surface and despite their bravery and fighting prowess the NOVA ships could not stop all of their enemies from breaking through as dozens of hostile ships descended to the surface to drop off more infantry. Commander Kal Wardin was where he belonged yet did not wish to be, the frontlines. After the most recent mission where Yelena had almost been killed by Mah'Raz he had promised himself he would throw in the towel and leave NOVA forever but that was before the Judgers began their attack on Humanity, five days after the battle at the temple a fleet of Alliance and Judger warships had appeared several times around NOVA listening posts near New Ceres before they finally attacked and in the first ten minutes had almost completely overran the NOVA garrisons.

Kal ducked behind a crashed car as Alliance troopers opened fire with their plasma rifles, triple bursts of plasma melted the car away almost revealing the armoured man hiding behind it, in retaliation Kal popped out of cover and poured bullets into the three nearest troopers sending them sprawling to the ground as the rounds ripped through their armour. A nearby NOVA trooper was hurled bodily into Kal as a Volterite Psycher blew up a gas canister at his feet. Grunting as the heavy marine slammed into him Kal rolled with the blow and used it's momentum to cross the gab between his cover and another chunk of metal sticking out of the road, his armor screeched as it slid across the ground and halted just short of open street. He picked up his rifle and settled down behind his new barrier and opened fire at the half dozen armored aliens on the opposite side.

"Yelena how long until you get here? I don't know how much longer we can hold out!". Shouted Kal into his helmet mic as he was forced to catch a leaping xeno and impale it on and exposed pipe buying the other aliens time to move up. Several fresh NOVA marines rounded the corner to Kals' seven o'clock and provided covering fire as they moved into positions along the fleet, one marine crouched down next to Kal. "Sir, our troops in the north quarter are losing ground on all fronts as are the troops in the west quarter and central district, it's only a matter of time before we're overrun too.". Explained the Marine. "We are here to cover the retreat of our forces in this sector, there are two four-by-fours around the side of that building ready to get us all out of here!". "Negative, I have my own pickup coming, prepare to sound the general retreat and get our people rallied in the center of the city.". Kal replied as he fired back as the rushing aliens, the marine nodded and worked his way back to a pair of troopers guarding the building corner, soon they disappeared and the revving of engines could be heard over the sounds of gunfire.

A pair of four-by-fours raced past the street opening and poured machine-gun fire into the aliens stopping their advance short, a small rocket whooshed over Kals' head and blasted four Volterites into bloody ribbons. No matter how many the NOVA troops killed more Volterites and Xenos poured into the streets, finally when the aliens where just about on top of them a roaring filled the air and a NOVA frigate swooped in overhead the angular ship fired a volley from it's ventral turrets and cleared the streets sending clouds of blood, guts, dust and metal into the air. "Am I late?". Yelena's voice filtered in through Kals' earpiece and a small smile curved his lips. "Almost Yelena, almost, now how about we get our people out of this hellhole?". "Sounds good to me.".

"Good, land in the city center and pick up everyone you can, whoever can't get on will have to get the next ship, patch me through to everyone in the city.". Kal waited and head a few clicks and static bursts before Yelena gave him the okay. "This is Commander Wardin to all NOVA forces, you are hereby ordered to retreat you the city center for extraction, I repeat there is extraction in the city center.". He closed the channel and stood up from his cover and addressed the six soldiers still standing after their defense of the street. "Let's move it marines, wouldn't want to miss our own ride, grab whatever you can from the dead and move out in two.". The survivors scattered and looted the dead bodies of both sides for ammunition and useful gear, once the troops had gathered what the could Kal waved them forward. "It's a long walk to the city center let's move out people!". As one the troopers started towards the city center following Kal.

There was combat throughout the colony and much of it was not favorable to the NOVA forces, Kal and his group stopped to help who they could and gathered a sideshow group of forty soldiers along the way but it was clear that no matter what the NOVA had lost this battle. Kal let out a sigh of relief as Yelena's frigate came into view, it was untouched by hostile ground forces and a group of NOVA marines spotted Kal's group and waved them towards the ship. "You're the last group sir! No one else has shown up for fifteen minutes and we have to take off before any Judger ships home in on our position!". "Got it, everybody on!". Kal and his group boarded the ramp into the hangar and immediately felt the ship's engines rumble and the deck tilt as they took flight and roared into space. Kal walked onto the bridge where Yelena stood beside the captains chair in her biomechanical body with her hand on the control console transferring data between her and the ship.

"Thanks for the pickup today.". Kal said, shattering the silence on the bridge. "You're welcome but you knew I wouldn't leave you down there either way, not after what we've been through together.". Kal nodded in agreement and panned his gaze across the main windows and watched as the NOVA ships pulled away from the battle and activated their FTL engines and shot away. "Hold onto something commander.". An orange glow filled the bridge as Yelena activated the FTL, a humming filled the room and steadily grew louder with each passing second. Just before the jump was made an alarm began to sound and the orange ambient light became bright red lights lining the edges of the room. "Judger corvette on intercept co-".

Yelena was cut off as a missile detonated against the ship's hull and sent them into a spin just as the FTL shot them forward into space. The frigate appeared several hundred kilometers above a massive asteroid field, Yelena immediately began scanning. "Yelena, what the hell just happened?". Kal gripped the headrest of the captain's chair and stated out into the field of rocks and debris. "The Judger ship threw us off trajectory, it'll probably follow us here so we need to hide or make another run for i-". Both Kal and Yelena stopped moving or speaking and just stared out of the ship. "What is that?". Kal asked but Yelena just shook her head. Outside the ship the asteroid field had come into view and mixed in with the rocks were hundreds of thousands of ancient destroyed ships with half of a massive vessel at the center.

A/N: Okay so that was chapter one, I'll admit that I hoped this chapter would be a bit longer but I wanted to get to the end without dragging everyone down with exposition but I will have more in the next few. Remember to leave a review. also i would like to thank everyone for helping me hit 5 000 views on Collision!


End file.
